In general, there is an ever-growing need for new and improved ways to reliably detect underground tunnels of various sorts. Specifically, detecting underground tunnels is very important for preventing smugglings, prison brakes, terroristic attacks, and any other illegal or subversive activity which uses hidden tunnels. In addition, ground or air invasions are visible and easily detectable, underground invasions or attacks are undetectable and unpredictable, further stressing the need to detect underground tunnels at conflict areas.
Today, tunnel digging is relatively easy and fast, and diggers can create very long tunnels at great depths, such as 20 meters deep. In addition, thanks to modern technology, diggers can control their underground location with great accuracy enabling them to reach their exact destination even after a long dig. This leads to the creation of extremely long tunnels beginning deep in an opponent's area, such as an enemy city near a border, which is not monitored or controlled by the neighboring opponent. Moreover, such tunnels can begin from within a building, thereby preventing satellite or aerial identification of the tunnel opening.
Accordingly, many techniques have been developed to detect such underground tunnels and to prevent their digging. Currently, except visually detecting at the ground site, underground tunnel detections are attempted by way of a variety of single sensor and multi-sensor approaches utilizing a broad spectrum of technologies. Some of the technologies include seismic-acoustic methods utilizing compressional seismic (P) waves, electromagnetic and resistivity, ground penetrating radar, and magnetic methods. Some of the more recently developed approaches utilize microgravity and subsurface interface radar (see, e.g., CA 2514982, US 2012/0186342 and Vesecky et al., “Tunnel Detection”, SRI International, 1980).
However, all of the current technologies being utilized toady to detect underground tunnels include various inherent problems such as excessive clutter, excessive signal loss due to varying soil/rock mediums, and excessive false-positive and false-negative readouts due to the in-homogeneities present underground. These inherent problems complicate and prevent reliable tunnel detection.
In addition, the outputs of the above various techniques is usually a measured signal or a representative image of variations in the scanned/sensed soil. However, these outputs first have to be interpreted by highly trained analysts before any determinations are formed, and by nature these interpretations are subjective and might be unreliable. Moreover, the processing rate tends to be very slow with an extremely high occurrence of false-positive and false-negative results.
Other techniques aim at blocking underground passageways, e.g. by placing a thick un-tampered steel or concrete wall along a bordering line.
Accordingly, there exists a long felt need for an improved technology and method for detecting and identifying underground tunnels that alleviates the known inherent problems present within the technologies and methods used today for detecting tunnels in the various industries. Accordingly, the presently invented system and method for detecting and identifying newly dug underground tunnels overcomes all the disadvantages of the prior art methods, and are intended to help and satisfy this important long felt need.
All publications mentioned throughout this application are fully incorporated herein by reference, including all references cited therein.